Zuma’s MK Party takes early lead on KZN provincial ballot
A hotly-contested province, KwaZulu-Natal has traditionally been an ANC stronghold, with strong IFP and DA support bases – but the MK Party is clearly in the mix now.
Members of the MK Party sing and chant outside the Constitutional Court hearing in Johannesburg on 10 May 2024 over their leader and former President Jacob Zuma’s eligibility to stand for Parliament. Picture: AFP
DURBAN - Former president Jacob Zuma’s new uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party is taking an early lead on the KwaZulu-Natal provincial ballot.
A hotly-contested province, KwaZulu-Natal has traditionally been an African National Congress (ANC) stronghold, with strong Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Democratic Alliance (DA) support bases.
The MK Party is clearly very much in the mix now, though.
ALSO READ:
- Early trends indicate ANC in trouble in KZN, PA making gains in Western Cape
- MK Party supporters confident about making major inroads in KZN
- Elections 2024: Results trickling in as vote counting officially underway
Counting, of course, only started in the early hours of Thursday morning, and it is still very early days, with only 4.9% of the of the province’s votes, or just under 80,000 of them, having been tallied by the time the last update was provided - which was just after 8 am.
By that point, MK party had received 32,736 votes on the provincial ballot, leading the pack.
The ANC had just under 16,000, the IFP just under 15,000, and the DA with 11,300-odd.
However, this is a marathon and not a sprint and the majority of the votes were still to be counted. What the final picture will look like remains to be seen.